gjones

In the 80s Japanese basses got a lot of love from famous bass players. Sting and Phil lynott played Ibanez, Paul Mccartney played a Yamaha and John Taylor played an Aria. I do't know if they were endorsed or were given freebies? Maybe it was because Fender were putting out inferior instruments at the time?

Snarks are very good for bass but as they have swiveling stalk thing, which is delicate and tends to break, you have to be very careful with them.

It depends on how good they are. There's a few bands I wouldn't have a problem joining if I knew the musicianship was excellent and the gigs they played were top notch. I play 70 to 100 gigs a year with other bands. So I wouldn't want to play in a band that only played 5-6, under rehearsed, gigs in dive bars. That would not be worth the bother.

I got described as a 'smooth' bass player by two random musicians recently. What the heck does 'smooth' mean? They meant it as a compliment but I have no idea what it means. This is my idea of a great bass player. Somebody who has all the chops but knows when to hold back and compliment the song. The first video is an example of the first quality and the second video is an example of the second quality. The guys name is Alan Thompson from Glasgow. He used to be John Martyn's bass player.

FYI I played Stramash tonight and connected my own GK MB500 up to the Orange 4x10. I got a much tighter bass sound compared with the sound I used to get from the Orange Terror Head. It made the night a much more satisfying experience than normal.

Well we all know who that was. I puzzled over it as well. What he seems to be saying is, that he is racist.....but just a little bit racist.

The fender ones are rubbish.

It's a nice looking bass. It reminds me of the Jazz bass I knocked up with a MIJ Fender neck and a maple body, from a Vintage Modified 70s Jazz Bass. The ferrules could have been added at a later date, so that they could be used with a string through Fender bridge.

Well I did 2 secs after I posted.

I bought my MIJ Geddy Lee from a guy in California, via Ebay. It was in great condition and had a fantastic low action. The neck was so slim it almost played itself. I felt it was a lot twangyier than my other jazzes (is that a word?). The 70s style tuners were a bit imprecise but that's 70s style tuners for you. Interestingly, I swopped the neck with a chunkier Allparts, rosewood, Jazz neck (for curiosity's sake) and felt it then sounded a lot deeper and darker. Stupidly I sold it and instantly regretted it. That was about 5 years ago and I've come to the conclusion that my next bass purchase will have to be another Geddy Lee (I plan to fit it with a John East J-retro, which will make it an even more awesome instrument).

It's supposedly been trading since 2012. I'll eat my hat if this place turns out to be kosher.

These 50s, 60s and 70s basses are nothing new. The only difference is that they were previously manufactured in mexico. Now you can buy them, manufactured in the USA, and sold for twice the price. I think Fender had Trump voters in mind when they thought of this range.

The contract may be designed to weed out people who have a drink problem. I know many, many musicians who would run a mile from a contract like that. Then when you get on board the rules may be a bit more reasonable.

This is the entry from wikipedia about that tour. It was a reunion, with the 4 original members. 'With David Lee Roth as the opening act, the reunited original foursome went out in the spring and summer of 1999 for a 32 date reunion tour in the US, which began on 15 May 1999 at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. The tour included a pay-per-view concert on 21 May at Hard Rock Live in Orlando and ended on 8 August at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. The shows drew well, but after that, Ralphs announced he was retiring from live performing and Burrell left again as well bringing the reunion to an end. The Greek Theater concert turned out to be the last show of the original four members. In the 2014 Bad Company 40th Anniversary DVD documentary, Kirke elaborates further on the end of the 1999 reunion, stating that he and Rodgers did not wish to continue on since he and Rodgers were sober and the other two were not.'

I think he said it was colleges and arenas. They hadn't gigged for a while and when he was first asked he turned them down. Then they told him how much money he could make and he jumped at the chance.

I once had a chat with Boz Burrell, who was Bad Company's bass player (he was a friend of a friend). He'd just come back from a 6 week tour of The States with Bad Company (this was in the late 90s) and he told me he was paid $600,000 for those 6 weeks. Nice work if you can get it. On the other hand, friends of mine were give the support slot, for a UK tour, with The Proclaimers. They were given £3,000 for the whole, 30 day, tour. They had to rely on merchandise and PRS money. and shared a lot of Premier Inn and Travelodge rooms. My niece, who has her own signed rock band, toured the USA last year at a loss (she was £10,000 down at the end of the tour). But she felt it was a cost worth paying,to promote the band over there.

I once stood and watched a fantastic saxophonist stand under a bridge, here in Edinburgh, and play his heart out. He was so good that I went up to him and gave him a tenner. He looked at me and said 'I'm not busking, it's just that the reverb is really great under this bridge'. He didn't give me my tenner back though.

I had a guy travel from Yorkshire, to my home in Edinburgh, to pick up a bass. He was very keen.

For flips sake, what nasty pasty thought this stinky poo up!

When i practice, it's usually pretty quietly. I'd love to turn up and freak out but I realise there are limits to what neighbours are ready to put up with. I did once turn everything up to 10. That was when my downstairs neighbours we blasting their stereo at full volume. I placed my amp, speaker down, on my floor and gave them a blast of bass feedback at 500 watts. After about 5 mins of torture they got the message and the stereo was switched off.

I bought a standard Squier, Indonesian made, Jazz Bass, on Basschat, for £95. I subsequently bought a Geddy Lee Jazz and a MIJ 62 reissue (both history now) but I still preferred the Squier. My nephew has it now.

I suppose in 10 years time they'll all have different wear patterns and look very different from one another.

The Hartke HA3500 are good loud amps and are cheap as chips secondhand.

I played through a GP7 combo, at a gig, a couple of years ago and was thoroughly surprised at how good it sounded with my precision. I didn't try to pick it up though, as I suspected it would weigh the same as a small planet. I've seen them going for around £150, which is awfully tempting though.

Yes I know what you mean about the sound at Stramash. The first thing I do is turn the bass on the Orange Terror all the way down. I don't know if it's an issue with the amp, or just the general boominess of the room, that's the problem? I suspect it's due to the coupling effect with the stage. They need to find some beer crates to put that 4x10 on.